4 — Action selection and the basal ganglia
Introduction. A system that senses and models still has to decide which of its mutually incompatible actions is expressed. This […]
Keywords: action selection, basal ganglia, tonic inhibition, Grillner, Stephenson-Jones, Viable System Model
Read more →3 — The anatomy under the argument: the 1969 reticular-formation model and the modern arousal account
Introduction. The chapter says part of the neurophysiology behind Beer’s account of regulation is load-bearing, not illustrative. The item it […]
Keywords: reticular formation, Kilmer McCulloch Blum 1969, arousal, monoamines, gain control, Beer neurophysiology
Read more →2 — System 4 in Beer’s own text: model, the homeostat, forward model
Introduction. The chapter reads System 4, against Beer’s own text, as “considerably larger than a sensor”. On this reading System […]
Keywords: Stafford Beer, System Four, viable system model, forward model, anticipation, homeostasis
Read more →1 — System 4 as taught: the scanning picture
Introduction. The chapter starts from a claim about teaching practice, not about Beer. In current VSM teaching, it says, System […]
Keywords: Viable System Model, System 4, environmental scanning, VSM teaching, textbook descriptions
Read more →Punch and Judy: the show, its storyline, its origins and its history
Punch and Judy is the traditional British puppet show, played in a portable booth with glove puppets, in which Mr Punch — a squeaky-voiced, lawless trickster — fights and deceives everyone who crosses him, including his wife Judy and their baby, and usually escapes every consequence. There is no single fixed script: performers vary the episodes, combining slapstick, dark humour and audience participation. Its documented roots are Italian, and it has been recorded in London since 1662.
Read more →Who counts the states: partition and operationalisation
Detail page for the cheat sheet. Legend: ✓ read · ◐ secondary/abstract · † unread · ✗ no source. Introduction. […]
Keywords: partition, observer, state counting, measuring variety, Pfiffner, boundary
Read more →Requisite Hierarchy – What carries the load instead
Detail page for the cheat sheet. Legend: ✓ read · ◐ secondary/abstract · † unread · ✗ no source. Introduction. […]
Keywords: internal model principle, Francis & Wonham, Aulin, requisite hierarchy, requisite knowledge, multiscale variety
Read more →The good regulator theorem and its critics
Detail page for the cheat sheet. Legend: ✓ read · ◐ secondary/abstract · † unread · ✗ no source. Introduction. […]
Keywords: good regulator theorem, Conant & Ashby, internal model, Virgo, free energy principle
Read more →Ashby’s law as written
Detail page for the cheat sheet. Legend: ✓ read · ◐ secondary/abstract · † unread · ✗ no source. Introduction. […]
Keywords: Ashby 1956, requisite law of variety, Shannon, tautology objection, Beer
Read more →Major transitions, cultural evolution and niche construction
Three lines from evolutionary biology and anthropology. Maynard Smith and Szathmáry identified a series of major transitions—replicating molecules to chromosomes, prokaryotes to eukaryotes, cells to multicellular organisms, solitary individuals to eusocial colonies, primate societies to language-using societies—that share one form: entities capable of independent replication before the transition can
Keywords: major, transitions, cultural, evolution, niche, construction, three, lines, evolutionary, biology, anthropology, maynard
Read more →Self-organised criticality and its critics
Bak, Tang and Wiesenfeld proposed in 1987 that slowly driven, extended dissipative systems evolve spontaneously to a critical state with no characteristic scale, so that event sizes follow power laws and time series show 1/f noise, without any parameter being tuned. The sandpile is the canonical model: grains added
Keywords: self, organised, criticality, critics, bak, tang, wiesenfeld, proposed, 1987, slowly, driven, extended
Read more →Resilience, the adaptive cycle and early-warning signals
Holling's 1973 review separated two properties that management language runs together. Stability, later called engineering resilience, is the speed of return to equilibrium after disturbance. Resilience, later ecological resilience, is the amount of disturbance a system can absorb before it flips into a different regime with its own attractor.
Keywords: resilience, adaptive, cycle, early, warning, signals, holling, 1973, review, separated, properties, management
Read more →Firm mortality and scaling
The scaling programme associated with Geoffrey West and Luís Bettencourt looks for quantitative regularities in organisms, cities and firms that any general theory must explain. Daepp, Hamilton, West and Bettencourt applied survival analysis to more than 25,000 publicly traded North American companies between 1950 and 2009 and found an
Keywords: firm, mortality, scaling, programme, associated, geoffrey, west, bettencourt, looks, quantitative, regularities, organisms
Read more →Fitness landscapes and organisational search
A fitness landscape maps each possible configuration of a system to a performance value. Kauffman's NK model makes the landscape's ruggedness tunable: N components each contribute to fitness, and each contribution depends on the component's own state and on K others. With K = 0 the landscape has a
Keywords: fitness, landscapes, organisational, search, landscape, maps, possible, configuration, system, performance, value, kauffman
Read more →Causal emergence and information decomposition
Emergence is usually asserted. Information theory now offers ways to measure one version of it. Partial information decomposition (PID), introduced by Williams and Randall Beer in 2010, splits the information several sources carry about a target into unique, redundant and synergistic parts; synergy is information available only from sources
Keywords: causal, emergence, information, decomposition, usually, asserted, theory, now, offers, ways, measure, version
Read more →Bow-tie architectures and the robust-yet-fragile trade-off
A bow tie (or hourglass) is an architecture in which many diverse inputs fan in to a small conserved core of common currencies and protocols, which then fans out to many diverse outputs. Csete and Doyle proposed it as a recurring pattern in metabolism (many nutrients, a dozen precursors
Keywords: bow, tie, architectures, robust, yet, fragile, trade, off, hourglass, architecture, many, diverse
Read more →Degeneracy
Degeneracy is the ability of structurally different elements to perform the same function or produce the same output. Edelman and Gally distinguished it from redundancy, where identical copies do the same job, and argued that it is ubiquitous in biology—the genetic code, immune recognition, metabolic pathways, neural circuits, population-level
Keywords: degeneracy, ability, structurally, different, elements, perform, same, function, produce, output, edelman, gally
Read more →Measuring hierarchy and heterarchy
Whether a directed network is a hierarchy is not a yes-or-no question. Network science has produced several quantitative measures, of which the most useful for the VSM is the morphospace of Corominas-Murtra, Goñi, Solé and Rodríguez-Caso. They condense a directed graph to its acyclic skeleton and compute three coordinates:
Keywords: measuring, hierarchy, heterarchy, whether, directed, network, yes, question, science, produced, several, quantitative
Read more →Network motifs and the feed-forward loop
A network motif is a small subgraph—three or four nodes with a specified pattern of directed edges—that occurs in a real network significantly more often than in randomised networks with the same degree sequence. Milo and colleagues introduced the method in 2002 by scanning transcription networks, neural wiring, food
Keywords: network, motifs, feed, forward, loop, motif, small, subgraph, three, four, nodes, specified
Read more →Cortical organisation: hierarchy, timescales and the canonical microcircuit
"Hierarchy" in cortical neuroscience has several senses, and Beer's analogy uses two. The first is anatomical: a top level that commands. Badre and D'Esposito review the evidence that lateral frontal cortex is organised along a rostro-caudal gradient, more anterior regions supporting more abstract control, and ask whether the gradient
Keywords: cortical, organisation, hierarchy, timescales, canonical, microcircuit, neuroscience, several, senses, beer, analogy, uses
Read more →Affective neuroscience: liking, wanting and the social-pain controversy
Affective neuroscience separates what everyday language and Beer's "algedonic" treat as one axis. Berridge and Kringelbach's review distinguishes "liking," the hedonic impact of a reward, from "wanting," incentive salience or the motivation to obtain it. Liking is generated in a few small hedonic hotspots—in the nucleus accumbens shell, the
Keywords: affective, neuroscience, liking, wanting, social, pain, controversy, separates, everyday, language, beer, algedonic
Read more →Neuromodulation and uncertainty
Neuromodulators—acetylcholine, norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin—are released by small brainstem and basal-forebrain nuclei that project broadly across cortex and change the gain and learning rate of the circuits they reach, rather than carrying specific content. Yu and Dayan proposed that two of them carry two kinds of uncertainty. Acetylcholine signals expected
Keywords: neuromodulation, uncertainty, neuromodulators, acetylcholine, norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, released, small, brainstem, basal, forebrain
Read more →McCulloch, heterarchy and the reticular formation
Two papers by Warren McCulloch and his collaborators bear on whether a nervous system has an apex. The 1945 paper shows that a net with circular connections can produce intransitive preferences—A chosen over B, B over C, C over A. A hierarchy of values requires transitivity, so such a
Keywords: mcculloch, heterarchy, reticular, formation, papers, warren, collaborators, bear, whether, nervous, system, apex
Read more →Coordination dynamics and metastability
Coordination dynamics studies how the components of a system—fingers, limbs, neural populations, people—form and dissolve patterns of coordinated behaviour, using the tools of nonlinear dynamics and Haken's synergetics. Its founding result is the Haken–Kelso–Bunz model: two fingers oscillating in anti-phase switch abruptly to in-phase as frequency rises, a phase
Keywords: coordination, dynamics, metastability, studies, components, system, fingers, limbs, neural, populations, people, form
Read more →Predictive processing, the free-energy principle and Markov blankets
Predictive processing (PP) holds that the brain is a hierarchical generative model that continually predicts its sensory input and propagates only prediction errors upward, with precision-weighting deciding which errors are allowed to drive revision. Perception is inference; action is the other way of reducing error, by changing the world
Keywords: predictive, processing, free, energy, principle, markov, blankets, holds, brain, hierarchical, generative, model
Read more →The extended mind and the coupling–constitution debate
Clark and Chalmers argued that when an external resource plays the functional role that internal memory would—Otto's notebook standing in for Inga's biological memory—it is part of the cognitive process, and that whether something is cognitive should not depend on its being inside the skull (the parity principle). The
Keywords: extended, mind, coupling, constitution, debate, clark, chalmers, argued, external, resource, plays, functional
Read more →Distributed cognition
Distributed cognition is the claim, made by Edwin Hutchins on the basis of ethnography aboard a US Navy ship and in airline cockpits, that the unit of analysis for cognitive work is not the individual but a functional system of people, artefacts and procedures. Fixing a ship's position is
Keywords: distributed, cognition, claim, made, edwin, hutchins, basis, ethnography, aboard, navy, ship, airline
Read more →Institutional analysis and the commons
Ostrom's Governing the Commons argued, against the standard prediction that common-pool resources are either privatised, nationalised or destroyed, that resource users devise durable self-governing institutions. From cases of irrigation systems, fisheries, forests and groundwater basins that endured or collapsed she extracted eight design principles: clearly defined boundaries; congruence between
Keywords: institutional, analysis, commons, ostrom, governing, argued, against, standard, prediction, common, pool, resources
Read more →Accidents, reliability and the failure literatures
Four bodies of work describe how organisations fail. Normal accident theory (Perrow) classifies systems by interactive complexity (unplanned, non-linear interactions) and coupling (how tightly one step follows another); where both are high, accidents are consequences of system properties rather than pathologies, and the organisational requirements are contradictory, because complexity
Keywords: accidents, reliability, failure, literatures, four, bodies, work, describe, organisations, fail, normal, accident
Read more →Organizational silence and voice
The silence-and-voice literature asks why employees withhold information, concerns and suggestions from those above them, and what follows. Morrison and Milliken (2000) defined organisational silence as a collective phenomenon: a climate in which employees believe that speaking up is futile or dangerous, produced by managerial beliefs (employees are self-interested,
Keywords: organizational, silence, voice, literature, asks, why, employees, withhold, information, concerns, suggestions, above
Read more →Learning, exploration/exploitation and competency traps
March's 1991 paper frames organisational learning as an allocation between exploration (search, variation, experimentation, whose returns are distant and uncertain) and exploitation (refinement, efficiency, whose returns are near and reliable). Two models carry the argument. In the first, individuals learn from an organisational code and the code learns from
Keywords: learning, exploration, exploitation, competency, traps, march, 1991, paper, frames, organisational, allocation, between
Read more →Organizational ecology, inertia and the survivorship rival
Organisational ecology explains the diversity of organisational forms by selection at the population level rather than by adaptation of individual organisations. Hannan and Freeman's 1977 paper set out the programme: founding and mortality rates, niche width, the specialist–generalist distinction and competition among populations, with formal models borrowed from bioecology.
Keywords: organizational, ecology, inertia, survivorship, rival, organisational, explains, diversity, forms, selection, population, level
Read more →Sociotechnical systems
Sociotechnical systems (STS) theory holds that the technical and social organisation of work are interdependent and must be designed jointly; optimising either alone degrades the whole. The founding study is Trist and Bamforth's account of British coal mines after mechanisation: the longwall method broke small, self-selecting, multi-skilled work groups
Keywords: sociotechnical, systems, sts, theory, holds, technical, social, organisation, work, interdependent, must, designed
Read more →The information-processing view of organization design
Galbraith's proposition is that the greater the uncertainty of a task, the more information must be processed among decision-makers during its execution, and that organisation structure exists to match information-processing capacity to that load. Uncertainty is defined as the gap between the information a task requires and the information
Keywords: information, processing, view, organization, design, galbraith, proposition, greater, uncertainty, task, must, processed
Read more →Near-decomposability and hierarchy (Simon)
Simon's 1962 paper argues that complex systems in nature and society are almost always hierarchic — systems of subsystems of subsystems — and explains why: hierarchic assemblies evolve faster and survive interruption better, illustrated by the parable of the watchmakers Hora, who builds in stable sub-assemblies, and Tempus, who
Keywords: near, decomposability, hierarchy, simon, 1962, paper, argues, complex, systems, nature, society, almost
Read more →Self-reproduction and what the VSM lacks (von Neumann)
Von Neumann asked, in lectures from 1948 and an unfinished manuscript completed by Arthur Burks, what logical organisation an automaton needs to build a copy of itself. His answer separates four parts: a universal constructor that can build any automaton from a description; a copier that duplicates a description;
Keywords: self, reproduction, vsm, lacks, von, neumann, asked, lectures, 1948, unfinished, manuscript, completed
Read more →Relational biology and anticipatory systems (Rosen)
Relational biology, founded by Nicolas Rashevsky and developed by Robert Rosen, asks what organisation a system must have to be alive, abstracting from the material it is made of. Rosen's answer is the (M,R)-system: a metabolism component that converts inputs to outputs, and a repair component that regenerates the
Keywords: relational, biology, anticipatory, systems, rosen, founded, nicolas, rashevsky, developed, robert, asks, organisation
Read more →Systems Process Theory (Troncale)
Systems Process Theory (SPT) is Len Troncale's attempt to build a general theory of systems not from a list of isomorphies but from the relations among them. The 1978 chapter identifies some fifty principal systems concepts — hierarchy, feedback, cycles, boundaries, emergence, and so on — and proposes "linkage
Keywords: systems, process, theory, troncale, spt, len, attempt, build, general, list, isomorphies, relations
Read more →Living Systems Theory (Miller)
Living Systems Theory (LST) is James Grier Miller's claim that all living systems, from the cell to the supranational system, are organised on nested levels and that every level must carry out the same set of critical subsystems. The levels were seven in the 1978 book and eight once
Keywords: living, systems, theory, miller, lst, james, grier, claim, cell, supranational, system, organised
Read more →General System Theory and equifinality
General System Theory (GST) is Bertalanffy's programme, begun in theoretical biology in the 1930s and consolidated in the 1968 collection, for a science of principles valid for systems of any kind. Its core concepts are the open system, which maintains itself by continuous exchange of matter and energy with
Keywords: general, system, theory, equifinality, gst, bertalanffy, programme, begun, theoretical, biology, 1930s, consolidated
Read more →Self-correction in a neighbouring field: the scale-free network episode
Barabási and Albert (1999) proposed that many real networks have power-law degree distributions generated by growth with preferential attachment, and "scale-free" became the headline result of network science, extended to metabolic, protein, social and Internet topologies with claims about robustness to random failure and vulnerability to targeted attack. Within
Keywords: self, correction, neighbouring, field, scale, free, network, episode, barab, albert, 1999, proposed
Read more →Measurement, reliability and analyst agreement
Content analysis is the technique of making replicable, valid inferences from texts to their contexts; Krippendorff's textbook gives its design logic (unitising, sampling, coding, reducing, inferring) and its treatment of reliability. Reliability among coders is the degree to which independent coders, working from the same instructions, assign the same
Keywords: measurement, reliability, analyst, agreement, content, analysis, technique, making, replicable, valid, inferences, texts
Read more →Metascience: many-analysts studies, preregistration, Registered Reports
Metascience studies research practice with research methods. Three findings matter here. Many-analysts studies give the same data and question to independent teams and measure the spread of conclusions: Silberzahn et al. (2018) had 29 teams test whether referees give more red cards to dark-skinned players and obtained odds ratios
Keywords: metascience, many, analysts, studies, preregistration, registered, reports, research, practice, methods, three, findings
Read more →Falsification, research programmes and the Duhem–Quine problem
Popper's criterion was that a scientific claim must forbid some observation, and that a theory is tested by attempts to produce the forbidden case. Duhem and later Quine showed why single refutations rarely bite: a prediction follows from a theory only together with auxiliary hypotheses about instruments, initial conditions
Keywords: falsification, research, programmes, duhem, quine, problem, popper, criterion, scientific, claim, must, forbid
Read more →History of cybernetics, Cybersyn and the provenance of ‘algedonic’
Cybernetics has a documented history, and the VSM's vocabulary has a documented provenance that the tradition does not teach. Medina's archival history of Project Cybersyn (1971–73) reconstructs the operations room, the Cyberstride statistical filters, the telex network and the political setting, and shows how much of the real-time apparatus
Keywords: history, cybernetics, cybersyn, provenance, algedonic, documented, vsm, vocabulary, tradition, does, teach, medina
Read more →Second-order cybernetics and autopoiesis
Second-order cybernetics, associated with von Foerster, Maturana, Varela and Pask, turned cybernetics on the observer: the description of a system includes the one describing it. Its most influential product is autopoiesis. Maturana and Varela (1980, collecting work from 1970 and 1973, with a preface by Beer) define a living
Keywords: second, order, cybernetics, autopoiesis, associated, von, foerster, maturana, varela, pask, turned, observer
Read more →Control theory: the internal model principle
Control theory is the mathematical discipline nearest to cybernetics, and it states with proofs what cybernetics states with maxims. Francis and Wonham (1976) proved the internal model principle for linear multivariable systems: a regulator that achieves asymptotic tracking or disturbance rejection, and does so robustly against perturbations of the
Keywords: control, theory, internal, model, principle, mathematical, discipline, nearest, cybernetics, states, proofs, maxims
Read more →Empirical tests of the VSM
The model has been tested, rarely. Schwaninger and Scheef (2016) is the only published study that states VSM-derived hypotheses in advance and reports results against them: eight hypotheses, a questionnaire survey of several hundred organisations collected at a business congress, structural equation modelling, and a Popperian framing (can Beer's
Keywords: empirical, tests, vsm, model, been, tested, rarely, schwaninger, scheef, 2016, only, published
Read more →Critiques of the VSM and critical systems thinking
Critical systems thinking (CST) grew out of the recognition that no single systems methodology suits every problem context. Jackson classified methodologies by the complexity of the system and the relations among participants (unitary, pluralist, coercive) and argued for pluralism; his 1988 paper is the canonical appreciation and critique of
Keywords: critiques, vsm, critical, systems, thinking, cst, grew, out, recognition, single, methodology, suits
Read more →The VSM community’s own extensions: pathologies, diagnosis, applications
After Beer, the model was developed in three directions. Diagnostic instruments: Pérez Ríos's Taxonomy of Organizational Pathologies groups failures as structural, functional or information-system pathologies, each defined as a deviation from a VSM element or channel, supported by roughly two hundred diagnostic questions and the VSMod software; a 2025
Keywords: vsm, community, own, extensions, pathologies, diagnosis, applications, after, beer, model, developed, three
Read more →Beer’s primary texts and the model’s three formulations
Beer stated the model three times in three idioms. In Towards the Cybernetic Factory (1962), a symposium paper written while he ran operational research at United Steel, the firm is a homeostat coupled to its environment and the coupling is given a set-theoretic and topological presentation. In Brain of
Keywords: beer, primary, texts, model, three, formulations, stated, times, idioms, towards, cybernetic, factory
Read more →First-order cybernetics: requisite variety and the good regulator
Ashby defined variety as the number of distinguishable states of a set, and regulation as the blocking of disturbance from reaching a system's essential variables. The law of requisite variety says that a regulator can reduce the variety of outcomes only to the extent that its own variety matches
Keywords: first, order, cybernetics, requisite, variety, good, regulator, ashby, defined, number, distinguishable, states
Read more →Cheat sheet — Complexity Science, Ecology and Evolution: NK landscapes, firm mortality, resilience, panarchy, criticality
This sheet collects the sciences that ask Beer's question — what organisation lets a system persist? — with simulations, survival data and evolutionary evidence, and answer it differently. NK-landscape simulation says a fixed architecture is the pathology; firm-mortality records supply an outcome variable that is viability itself, a roughly constant hazard with a ten-year half-life; resilience ecology splits viability into engineering and ecological resilience and the adaptive cycle; panarchy, critical slowing down and self-organised criticality supply the dynamics across levels.
Keywords: complexity, science, ecology, evolution, theme, collects, sciences, ask, beer, question, organisation, lets
Read more →Cheat sheet — Network Science and Systems Biology: network motifs, hierarchy morphospaces, degeneracy, bow-ties
This sheet supplies the instruments for treating the Viable System Model as a directed graph whose structure, function and failure modes can be computed rather than asserted. Network motifs give the System One–Two–Three triad a known dynamical signature, the coherent feed-forward loop's sign-sensitive delay; hierarchy morphospaces turn the hierarchy-versus-heterarchy dispute into a computable question with a null model; degeneracy explains why different structures can do the same job; and bow-tie architectures name the robust-yet-fragile trade-off.
Keywords: network, science, systems, biology, theme, supplies, instruments, demonstration, subgraph, claim, iib, depend
Read more →Cheat sheet — Neuroscience: Beer’s brain mapping tested, cortex, reticular formation, neuromodulation, liking versus wanting
This sheet is the neuroscience needed to check Beer's mapping of the model onto the brain, component by component: System Five as cortex, Four as the diencephalon, Three as the autonomic base, Two as sympathetic ganglia, the algedonic channel as a pain–pleasure signal converging on the reticular formation, and recursion as the repeated cortical microcircuit. The evidence is mixed: current neuroscience finds no anatomical apex, supports hierarchy better as a temporal gradient than an anatomical ladder, and treats liking and wanting as separate systems.
Keywords: neuroscience, theme, needed, defend, demonstration, takes, beer, canonical, mapping, system, five, cortex
Read more →Cheat sheet — Cognitive Science and Philosophy of Mind: distributed cognition, extended mind, predictive processing
This sheet covers the cognitive science and philosophy of mind that decide what kind of claim the Viable System Model makes, and where a system ends. It sets out the choice between reading the five systems instrumentally — a construct that helps practitioners — and reading them constitutively; the predictive-processing and free-energy accounts that might derive System Two's damping from the same principle as Systems Three and Four; the extended-mind and distributed-cognition debates that supply boundary criteria; and coordination dynamics, where order arises from coupling without a controller.
Keywords: cognitive, science, philosophy, mind, theme, covers, four, lines, work, v02, imports, say
Read more →Cheat sheet — Organization Theory, Design and Failure: information processing, sociotechnical systems, survival, silence
This sheet collects the organisation-theory literatures that either arrived independently at the Viable System Model's logic or supply rival explanations for the outcomes it claims to explain. Galbraith's information-processing view and sociotechnical research on autonomous work groups rediscovered variety engineering in practice; organisational ecology treats survival as selection rather than design; the learning, silence and normal-accident literatures document failures in escalation and adaptation; and Ostrom's design principles show what a comparable research programme looks like when it is executed.
Keywords: organization, theory, design, failure, theme, covers, organisation, literatures, either, rediscovered, vsm, logic
Read more →Cheat sheet — General Systems Theory and Rival Minimal Sets: Miller, Rosen, Troncale, equifinality, near-decomposability
General System Theory asks what functions any persisting system must have. This sheet compares the answers given independently of Beer: Bertalanffy's open systems and equifinality, Miller's critical subsystems, Rosen's modelling relation and anticipatory systems, Troncale's linkage propositions, von Neumann's self-reproduction, and Simon's near-decomposability. Read together they make the Viable System Model's five functions one candidate minimal set among several, and show which functions it leaves out — a reproducer, memory, an energy-processing chain.
Keywords: general, systems, theory, rival, minimal, sets, theme, covers, traditions, answered, independently, beer
Read more →Cheat sheet — Philosophy of Science and Metascience: falsification, research programmes, preregistration, reliability
This sheet covers the philosophy of science, and the science-of-science instruments, that decide whether a research programme rather than a single claim is making progress. It sets out Popper's demand that a scientific claim forbid some observation, the Duhem–Quine problem that makes single refutations rare, Lakatos's research programmes and their protective belts, and the metascience evidence on how much results depend on analytic choices: many-analysts studies, preregistration and Registered Reports, and reliability statistics such as Krippendorff's alpha.
Keywords: philosophy, science, metascience, theme, supplies, paper, method, rather, object, receipt, protocol, piece
Read more →Cheat sheet — Cybernetics and the Viable System Model: Ashby’s law, Beer’s three formulations, critics and tests
Beer's Viable System Model is a theory of what organisation lets a system persist, built on Ashby's law of requisite variety and the good-regulator theorem. This sheet sets out the model's own claims and their provenance: the theorems it rests on, the three ways Beer formulated it — mathematically in 1962, neurophysiologically in 1972, logically in 1979 — the pathology taxonomy and applications added by later practitioners, the critiques from critical systems thinking, the rare attempts to test it, and the history behind its vocabulary.
Keywords: cybernetics, viable, system, model, theme, covers, thing, paper, puts, stress, beer, first
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